Thor Pedersen

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Thor Pedersen (born June 14, 1945) is a Danish politician representing the Liberal party, Venstre. He has been Finance Minister since November 27, 2001 as part of the Cabinets of Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He has been a Member of Parliament (Folketinget) since 1985.

He was Minister of Housing from March 12, 1986 to September 9, 1987, Minister of the Interior from September 10, 1987 to January 25, 1993, Minister of Nordic Coorporation from June 3, 1988 to November 18, 1992 and Minister of Economic Affairs from November 19 to January 25, 1993.

He was a member of Helsinge Municipal Council, 1974 - 1986, where he was also mayor from 1978 to 1986

[edit] Education

Matriculated in mathematics, Frederiksborg State Upper Secondary School, 1964

Sergeant in the Royal Danish Life Guards, 1964-1966

MA (political science), University of Copenhagen, 1978

[edit] Other Work

Thor Pedersen has worked extensively in private business, both in investment companies and as a board member of several Danish companies.

Between 1994 and 2000 he was the CEO of Jydsk Rengøring, a cleaning company that was later sold to ISS. He has later drawn criticism for his work in Jydsk Rengøring. In early 2002 he was accused of being part of the Brixtofte case, (Farum Mayor Peter Brixtofte was accused of mismanaging taxpayers money for personal use, among other things.) and Jydsk was accused of overcharging the municipal of Farum, and then channeling the money to Farum Football club through a sponsorship deal. Thor Pedersen denied all involvement of both him self and Jydsk, during his time as CEO. Thor Pedersen was questioned by police who found no evidence of wrong during, on behalf of Thor Pedersen.

Later in 2002 Danish press revealed that Thor Pedersen as a minister, had been staying for long periods in his summer home, and not on the farm that he owned. This was a violation of rules of the residence law (Da; Bopælspligt), stating that you must live a certain amount of the year, at the address given given to authorities. It was suggested that he might also be in violation with another law, stating that the owner of a farm of a certain size, must live on the ground. The case turned into a major headache, after it became clear that Thor Pedersen's spin doctors had made several false statements to the press and had apparently gone out of their way to hide the truth, or to only tell part of it. The case led to new stricter rules for any so called spin doctor working in politics in Denmark.

As a result of the case, Thor Pedersen agreed to pay back the agricultural support he had received by the EU for his farm, while technically living somewhere else. In total he repaid around 28.000 euro (207000 DKR), despite actually legally being entitled to the money.

[edit] References

• CV - From Folketinget.
• Article on cases

Political offices
Preceded by Knud Enggaard	Interior Minister of Denmark September 10, 1987 – January 25, 1993	Succeeded by Birte Weiss
Preceded by Anders Fogh Rasmussen	Minister of Economic Affairs of Denmark November 19, 1992 – January 25, 1993	Succeeded by Marianne Jelved
Preceded by Pia Gjellerup	Finance Minister of Denmark November 27, 2001 —	Succeeded by Current incumbent